


Rounds!

by Ice_is_my_life



Series: Taiyuu OCT [2]
Category: Taiyuu OCT, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Fighting, Fire, Gen, Quirks, Voodoo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23199334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ice_is_my_life/pseuds/Ice_is_my_life
Summary: Masaki's rounds. Also found on ice-is-my-lif on tumblr.
Series: Taiyuu OCT [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1674439
Collections: Taiyuu OCT





	1. Mya Ningyo vs. Masaki Sako

Sako smiled as he faced off against his opponent. He was quite confident. On the other hand, Ningyo-chan was definitely not. She looked a bit scared, maybe put off by such an enthusiastic opponent. 

For all Sako’s confidence though, there was one important bit of information he was missing.

He had absolutely no idea what her quirk was. 

_Haha, it’ll be fine._

_Right?_

He lowered his center of gravity down, ready to spring. The multicolored wings dissipated into the wind, and Ningyo’s eyes were open wide as she saw what she thought was a limb dissolving from his back.

She was steady on her feet, looking like she was prepared to hold her ground.

Aurora-sensei cleared her throat, getting ready to start the next match.

“On your mark.. Get ready.. GO!”

Sako launched himself forward tapping his left eye, quickly forming what looked like a large swiffer from the metal in his earrings. He held it out in front of him as he ran, and he thought what her quirk could possibly be.

_I think it’s like a voodoo quirk. That’s what I overheard earlier, but is it her whole body? Probably just her left side if those scars mean anyth- WOAH._

The boy’s eyes flared open as he narrowly avoided getting stabbed by one of those wicked-looking hair spikes. He had quickly ducked down below it as it went past him, and he could feel the wind it made. 

He swung low and to the right at her legs to try and knock her off balance with his metal Swiffer, and she nimbly jumped over it, using her assumedly light body to land with a very small amount of dust.

She kept turning to the right to keep him on her left side, noticing his hesitance to go after her left side. And the whole time, Sako was cursing up a storm under his breath, his eyes already hurting from the earlier tapping and the dust he had kicked up.

They go back and forth like that, a continuous onslaught of blows and counters, with Ningyo mostly playing it safe, while repeatedly trying to stab him. Which is mostly blocked with his blocky end of his swiffer or dodged by him ducking or hopping to the side. He counters using punches and kicks, aiming for the right side of her body as much as possible. As of the moment, she sported quite a few nasty looking bruises from landing some solid punches and kicks or attempting to throw her to the ground with the help of his Swiffer. 

_Watch the left, watch the left, watch the- FUCK._

Sako had been aiming towards his opponent’s right side, in an attempt to prevent getting himself hit with what he thought were the effects of her quirk. And now, he had whammed her pretty hard with his blunt-force weapon. For someone as light as she was, she was thrown to the right, but landed solidly, keeping herself in the ring. 

The boy braced himself for an impact. He waited.

_Nothing’s happening!!! Maybe I was wrong about her quirk??? Maybe it just makes her light or something, though she still doesn’t seem to be damaged on her left side at all even after that last hit….._

She began counterattacking, sensing his lull in movement as he was wrapped up in his thoughts. She stabbed with an even more deadly aim. She seemed to be going for pretty much anywhere she could reach, and her hair seemed to be extending even longer than before when he was originally shielding himself. 

Ningyo smiled victoriously as she grabbed hold of his swiffer in her hair, not having a problem with the weight at all, despite the fact it was made out of solid metal. She began spinning it around her like a staff, except in her hair, and Sako stared up at it in terror, seeing his doom spinning in the air.

_Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck- how much time is left?_

Sako ducked, only to be completely blindsided by the dissipating metal. He looked up in relief, seeing the metal disappear, and sighed. 

_Wow, I thought it was going to last 8 minutes like the last time, but it must have come undone because I was so tired._

She looked confusedly at the end of her hair, and jumped back quickly as a burst of flame came up right in front of her.

The boy smiled through the tears in his left eye. Despite his slight blindness, he’s always thought fire was an excellent weapon, and based on his last couple of hits, her left side just regenerates, so she should be ok. If not, the fire is small enough that she’ll just get some burns, nothing to worry about. 

Sako sent up flames beneath Ningyo’s feet, the only warning that she got was a slight hiss and she had to pick a direction to go. And right now, she was so concentrated on getting away, the only direction she was moving was backward. 

Towards the edge of the ring.

_I’m so fucking tired please just go out of the ring, please._

Sako had been going strong for the past 15 minutes and was getting real fucking tired of having to dodge like this. Meanwhile, most of Ningyo’s moves were by stabbing with her hair, and she had to dodge far less than he due to his short range.

He was slowing down, he knew it.

She stabbed him. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt that much, not really. It felt like the prick of a pin, and suddenly he felt himself getting more and more frustrated with his situation.

_Fuck this, I’m just going to push her out of the ring whether she likes it or not._

He jumps at her, forgetting about his other techniques, and like a boss, she freaking jumps over him, using her light body and her quirk to give her a little extra lift. Sako swings towards her, and blocking with her left side, he hits her with what should be nasty roundhouse kick. It should have hurt her, not him.

Sako falls to one knee, the wind knocked out of him, and his arm throbbing. 

_I was right. It was a voodoo quirk, she just had to fucking stab me first. ARGH._

She goes on the offense now, with Sako mildly incapacitated, she slams her left fist into the ground, adding more [pain](https://ice-is-my-lif.tumblr.com/post/612934462199693312/mya-ningyo-vs-masaki-sako#) to Sako’s arm.

He winces.

Ningyo then twists her arm in such a way that makes it look like it’s going to break, and Sako bites his lip, holding back a groan of pain. She begins walking towards him, looking like she was just going to roll him out of the ring considering the amount of pain he’s in and how close to the line he was. 

The boy begins to panic, the feeling getting stronger, seemingly with every step she took.

_Why is this so scary, I have to be safe, It’s just a quirk, I have to be safe, It’s just a quirk._

_**I have to be safe.** _

A ring of fire shoots up around the boy, jumping higher and higher, preventing Ningyo from getting any closer to Sako.

Seeing the swirling oranges and yellows jumping up and down around him, flickering, hissing, calmed the boy. He stood up and stared at his friendly fire, keeping him safe. He didn’t feel as panicked anymore, whether it was from the fire or Ningyo stalling her quirk. And it didn’t hurt anymore either.

Ningyo was still staring at him surprised when Sako continued the fight. He created another layer of fire outside his original circle expanding it, and Sako moved towards her with his fire, looking for all hell like Freezerburn, his left hand cupped over his eye to soothe it from the heat of the flames.

His opponent backed up, and this time, she had nowhere to run. The flames were far too high to jump over, and he had very effectively trapped her.

It looked like she was starting to panic now, and a slightly hysterical Sako grinned a little through his exhaustion. She looked a little frantic, and running out of ideas, she decided that he should get a taste of his own medicine.

Ningyo stuck her entire left side into the bright fire. No hesitation. She went up in flames, her body quickly regenerating itself.

And Sako _burned_. The sensitive skin around his scars, especially on his calves and arms hurt like hell. But to the boy, it didn’t matter. He was burning, and he didn’t care. 

_What’s one more scar? It didn’t hurt as much as the first time anyway._

He calmly reached for his eye, and created a thick layer of ice around himself, soothing the burns, and allowing him to finish off Ningyo. 

Clad in his ice suit up to his neck, he slowly shuffles towards Ningyo and pushes her out of the ring.

There was a moment of shocked silence, then Aurora-sensei spoke. 

“Good job Masaki! You won this round.”

Masaki smiled and went to go help Ningyo up, the pieces of ice breaking apart now that he was moving more freely in them. He reached out to grab her hand to pull her up when like a dumbass, he tripped over a piece of ice and face planted on the ground next to her. She laughed good-naturedly from her seated position on the ground, he did too from his face plant.

“You did a really good job Ningyo-san! You almost had me at the end, I was getting pretty scared,” said Sako, rubbing his irritated eyes, both of them watering to almost blindness from the dust, heat, and tapping of the last 20 minutes. 

“You did good too, Masaki-san. I’ve never seen anyone have such a high pain tolerance. Much less anyone who can stand burns like that.”

“Haha, yeah! And look, now we have matching scars!” He pointed towards the burn scars that were forming on her left side, despite her not noticing them. 

She smiled softly at his enthusiasm and said, “I guess we do.”

They both got up and walked towards where the rest of the students were gathered, listening to Aurora-sensei.

The class had watched this fight with just as much enthusiasm and excitement as the first fights. However, this time they had much cause for alarm, this one was much more damaging to both opponents then normal. And they both seemed fine. There were many, many moments of shocked silence. Like when Masaki walked through the flames like a boss.

She was asking the class questions on what they could have done differently to make their fighting more effective. There were various answers to this question, including that Ningyo could have been more aggressive in her fighting to activate her quirk quicker. Others said Masaki could have created more obstacles.

When Aurora-sensei was finished talking, Ozen came up to Masaki and asked him, “Masaki-san, why did you not create the fire ring in the beginning? The ice shell thing you did would have helped with any problems you might have with the fire. It would have protected you from Ningyo-san’s spikes. It all would have gone much smoother if you had done that from the beginning.”

“Oh yeah! And how are you okay?! Those looked like really bad burns, considering Ningyo-chan stuck essentially her whole left side into the fire. Do you need to go to the nurse’s office?” Yamazaki asked.

“Don’t worry about it!” said Sako, ignoring the worried looks being exchanged over his head, “I’ve been through worse.”

“….”

“…..”

_Fuck this is so awkward._

“So.. yeah.”

“What do you mean you’ve been through worse?!”

Aurora-sensei was starting the next spar, and called for silence, leaving Sako to wave at them with relief, and the others to walk off to get a better view, Koatsu doing the “I’m watching you gesture.” as he did.

Sako thought as he conjured his wings, and iced his burns again, ignoring the people who stared at him and the wet spots appearing and disappearing on his clothing.

_Haha, yup. That went great._


	2. Reiko Sukoru vs. Masaki Sako

_ A few days earlier….. _

It was break time in Class 1-A, and everyone was conversating before class started. Tokachi walked up to the front of the classroom and waved, getting everyone’s attention 

“Hey guys! So I had this idea, maybe we can make walkie talkies for us to use during our next test? And we could have codenames! It’ll give us a huge advantage,  _ and _ it’ll be fun!” 

The class buzzed with excitement, and as one they gave their affirmation.

Tokachi beamed, glad he idea went through. “I got really really excited about this, so I came up with some code names already! Here!”

She started writing down the codenames, and after a moment of silence, silly grins began to spread across people’s faces. 

_ Oh, this was going to be good.  _

\-------------

  
  


Sako stared out across the makeshift city,taking account of what he had on him. Plastic and iron? Check. Walkie Talkie? Check. Unknown Fabric? Check. A stupid, inaccurate codename?  _ Sigh.  _ Check. He took in all the sights and the eerie lack of sound. Everyone had gone to their areas, and each of them was isolated, leaving a bridge of silence that no one could cross. The city was well endowed, complete with signs and vehicles, there must have been a huge amount of electricity used for this round.

There was an overlay of chatter from the radio.

Now, the feathered boy knew who his opponent was. His opponent was Reiko Sukoru, the girl who literally shocked Lyrimon, and if what he heard was true, she had flown over most of the obstacles in the entrance exam, by turning her legs into freaking tornados. Or maybe she had drifted as a cloud, but either way, pretty cool, right?

Sako was fucked. Like normal. But hey, what’s a fight without a challenge?

He stood listlessly, his arms at his side, his wings folded up, and he was trembling with adrenaline, finding it hard to breathe. 

Aurora cheerfully began explaining, with gruff inputs from Wolfsboon every once in a while, and then she began her countdown, everyone silencing as she went. 

“On your mark!” He looked up, searching. 

“Ready!” He leaned to get ready to run

“GO!” And off he went, running at a fast jog, not quite ready to spend all his energy yet. Even so, his endurance was pretty good, and he looked, up, down and all around for the faint glow of the orb.

The feathered boy thought it was a good idea to go just straight towards the middle of the course, that would make sense, right? They want to make it fair for both the students. And off he ran, taking note of who his area overlapped with. 

_ Oh look, there’s green fire. ….. And all the power went out over there. Looks like Funkee and Koatsu.  _

“HA! SEE HOW MUCH YOU LIKE THAT- oh. He sets things on fire.”

“COME AT ME BRO!”  _ There’s Lyrimon, and I guess that’s Popi. Oh dear, she’s staring at me. Haha, and now she’s not, good job Lyrimon! _

Returning his attention to the task ahead of him, he glanced down alleys and streets, not willing to take too many chances. Directly ahead of him was a roundabout, and in the middle was the orb, gently floating above it’s pedestal.

_ WHOOSH _

Reiko with tornado legs, dropped from the sky, and she reformed just in time to land gently on the ground, grabbing the orb as she went. 

_ If I just turn around and go back the other way, she’s going to think that I have it, right? I mean, she knows what my quirk is, right? Oh boy.  _

Sako turned around and started walking off as though he was trying to be stealthy, as she examined the orb, probably trying to figure out whether it was real or not.

And there it was, the rumble of noise coming from behind him, and he took off in a sprint, definitely not holding the orb, but making one as he ran, along with one of the other most stupid looking things he’s made in a while. 

He loaded his homemade orb into the hand held ball launcher, like the kind you use for dogs, and as he ran, he threw the ball as hard as he could down one of the streets, luckily, he judged the timing correctly and it flew quickly, going decently far before dissipating, leaving nothing behind. Just to be safe, he ran down one more block, pretending to throw something again, and then he put his acting skills to work, pretending he was shocked. 

Now he was “angry”, stopping and glaring at the street he just threw the orb down. “FUCK! THAT WAS THE WRONG ONE! UGGGH. I have to go get it now. Hrmph.” He took off again, this time going down the street, dropping the ball thrower, knowing full well that there wasn’t anything down there… Except for Shou and Otsuka.

“Hey Chicken Little, you good?”

Sako sighed at the name,  _ he’s not short dammit. _ He didn't know who it was, but he responded back anyway with a grunt of affirmation, “Yeah, it’s all part of my plan. Hey, I’ve Got A Bone to Pick, Reiko’s heading down your way, can you try and distract her?”

Otsuka’s voice came through. “I’ll try my best! I’m a little preoccupied, Shou keeps changing the range of their quirk and it’s  _ very _ disorienting.” 

Sako was pretty sure that Reiko was getting more confused now. And that was a good thing, and now she looked conflicting, glancing between the orb she was holding and the way Sako was running, and the first orb he threw, and she went off to follow the first orb, putting down the orb because she couldn’t carry it and go full speed arm and leg tornado at the same time. 

He glanced behind him and silently cheered as he veered off into an alley, Reiko not taking any notice of him, thinking that he was looking for it. 

And all through this, he backtracked while carefully stayed out of Shou’s range, knowing full well that Reiko was going directly into it, and as he ran, he checked to see how she was doing, but Shou’s activation and deactivation of their quirk range was disorienting her, despite her ability to propel herself. 

And he ducked and scooped up the orb, and sprinted like there was no tomorrow.

Glancing around, he goes a block down further from the main road, hopefully to avoid Reiko if she came sooner than expected. He pressed himself against the side of the building to catch his breath, and as he stood there for a few minutes, Funkee came running around the corner, also catching his breath, and the two made eye contact.

“.....”

“....”

“Uh, hello Hacker Voice.”

“Hi Masaki. Or should I say Chicken Little. Alright, so I’m running away from Koatsu, I have the orb.”

“.. Oh nice! Me too! You think you could help me with something?”

“Sure.”

Sako explained his plan, telling Funkee he just had to stay there, and run electricity through a wire for him. Funkee nodded in affirmation, and Sako began his plan to lure Reiko towards him.

He went back to the main street, and saw Reiko.

Now an angry tornado was after him. Great!

He was going to have to move his plan forward in time a little bit, and this time he slapped one of the exposed wires as he created a light, thin, metal web, and one long wire weighed down by what was essentially a hockey puck.

He threw the web at Reiko, and the puck at Funkee, who was connected to the building already, and as soon as Funkee caught it, he electrified the thing, Sako getting out of the way of the web as it fell, electrocuting Reiko. 

The two boys winced at her fall, she was now unconscious, with slight burn wounds where the net landed. 

_ Ouch.  _

Sako pulled up the web, intending to simply get it off her, when Koatsu came across them, and there was a beat of awkward silence before everyone starting moving, Sako throwing the web at him too, and Zeke channeling electricity, while Koatsu was running over to Reiko. 

_ Bzzzt! _

He dropped like a rock, and the two boys stared at their handiwork before sighing in relief, high fiving.

Speaking into the radio, Sako made eye contact with Funkee, grinning all the while. “Chicken Little and Hacker Voice here, we took down both our opponents. Mix n Match, I’ve Got a Bone to Pick, need any help?”

“Masaki, we can’t reach their areas.”

Sako blushed, and returned back to the radio. “Never mind then! Carry on, haha.” He turned to Funkee. “Hey man, thanks for your help.”

Funkee grinned. “Any time. And now, to win our rounds.”

The two of the shared one more smile before sprinting off to their goals. Sako carefully placed the orb in the goal, and Wolfsboon's voice growled out from the speakers. 

“Masaki Sako wins!”


	3. Entrance Exam

Trumpets blared out from the phone.

Masaki woke up, and leaned off his be to reach for his phone to turn off all five of his alarms. He blinked blearily and squinted to try and identify the time.

_Maybe it’s 10:00? God, I really need to stop being so lazy and fix the settings on my phone._

After squinting at it for a few more minutes, he shrugged, and hopped out of bed. Getting the clothes he laid out the night before, he quickly got dressed, and made a mental note to do some laundry once he got home. And buy some groceries maybe, they needed some more. After all, Masaki’s parents were going to be gone all day. He put some bread in the toaster, and ran off to finish getting ready for the day.

Brushing his [teeth](https://ice-is-my-lif.tumblr.com/post/190448140225/masaki-sakos-entrance-exam#) and his hair, he idly scrolled through tumblr, and resolutely ignored his contacts case which stared at him accusingly.

_Ooh look, new posts about quirked animals! Can’t believe Nezu’s not on that list. Kinda weird, but okay. I think it’s time to go soon, let’s hurry back upstairs!_

Masaki jumped as trumpets blared again from his phone, one more alarm set for the express purpose of making sure he wasn’t late.

_Well shit_.

And now he really needed to boogie. Grabbing his shoes, his prepacked backpack, an his piece of toast, he dashed out the door to reach the last train before it left for the docks.

“Aw shit!” He dashed back inside to retrieve his bag of jewelry, and then finally left, sprinting for all he’s worth towards the train station.

“Good [luck](https://ice-is-my-lif.tumblr.com/post/190448140225/masaki-sakos-entrance-exam#) on our exam!” yelled his neighbor as he rushed by.

“Thanks!” he yelled back.

Still sprinting he hears a chorus of mutters from besides him and sees a blue haired girl, making large leaps to go at a fast pace.

“Oh no I’m going to be late and miss the last train, if I don’t make it I’m not going to get in…..”

Having noticed Masaki, she looked up. 

“Oh hello! Based on what you’re doing, I bet you’re running late for the train too, huh?”

Masaki nodded in response, too busy running to respond properly.

She giggled, and he smiled at her.

They got to the train station, and somehow, when Masaki turned to make sure he was getting on the right train, he lost her.

_That’s a shame. It’s kinda sad to ride the train by yourself._

Masaki got off the train, and ran to the docks, hoping that the transportation was not what he thought it would be. 

He looked up at a gargantuan boat, with TH printed on it in bright letters.

_Of course it’s a boat, the school’s on an island, dumbass. Ok, so maybe it won’t be that long._

“Hey applicants! Be prepared for a 30 min boat trip!”

_Yeah, no. It wasn’t going to be a short boat trip._

After a long, long boat trip in which Masaki queasily reconsidered all of his life choices to go to school on an island that he couldn’t fly to, they finally arrived at the dock of Taiyuu High School.

The place for hero hopefuls.

Three people welcomed the applicants on a podium, one was a lady with black and white hair, who was kinda scary looking. Another was a deer man in a suit, and the last was a dog. 

The dog looked smart.

“Hello! I am Mrs. Chikyu, and I’m the principal here at Taiyuu High. This is the vice principal, Mr Kazumi. Alright applicants! First there’s the written test,” the lady waited for the groans and moans to subside then continued, “Then there’s the practical exam! The practical exam is an obstacle course where you’ll have to beat up some robots, save some people, and get to the finish line as fast as you can!" 

She paused for their murmurs again."Also, the test is on another island. So be prepared for one more boat trip! But for now, follow either me, or Mr. Kazumi to go your written exam rooms.”

_Not another one._

All of the applicants finish in record time it feels like, die to the anticipation of the practical exam. And they board one more boat to get to another island.

Masaki sighs as he watches the other applicants mill around, all of which seem much more confident then he was. He started putting on his multitude of jewelry, first the iron ring, then the turquoise necklace, then the silver bracelet, and finally [gold](https://ice-is-my-lif.tumblr.com/post/190448140225/masaki-sakos-entrance-exam#) earrings. Masaki glanced disastefully down at himself.

“Man, I haven’t been this mismatched in a longg time.” he muttered, eyeing the shininess of his jewelry in comparison to his drab sleeveless hoodie, sweatpants, and red shoes. 

A few minutes later, they finally arrived. 

Masaki looked up in astonishment at this humongous facility, that was used only once a year for _just_ entrance exams.

_Imagine what the real thing is like, Masaki._

The principal clapped her hands to grab their attention. “Alright folks, let’s get started! Don’t forget, you need to finish one lap through the course! Okay, GOOOO!”

Startled by the abrupt start, everyone froze to look at the principal who only smiled back at them. She shooed them forward, “I said go already! Come on, guys!”

Along with most of the other applicants, he finally took the hint and took off, dashing as hard as he could as he headed for his first obstacles.

It looked like the first zone was an absolutely trashed city. All of it was ruined, with building skeletons, fires, and wreckage, everywhere he looked. He vaguely remembered something about rescuing people from the principal’s first speech, but she skimmed over it so quickly that Masaki definitely could not remember what was said about it. 

Masaki was going to fly over the course to get to the end faster, and maybe get to the so called villains a bit faster. He did need a place to jump off from, because while his wings were strong, they acted more like a glider because of his body wasn’t completely adjusted for wings. 

He ran towards the closest building skeleton with the intent of climbing it, when he stumbled over a humanoid robot.

_I wonder what this is doing here. Maybe it’s a robot that someone defeated already?I_

A sign flashed on the robot’s chest. It said “Rescue Me”.

“Alright, gotta do what the lady asks.” said Masaki shrugging. He picked up the robot, and ran towards the closest “safe zone” which were marked by the forcefield around it, to keep applicants safe if they needed a break, or to store these “people” to save. 

He was almost to the safe zone when he heard a heavy thud. He turned quickly to see what was behind him, and what he saw was a giant robot with a two printed on it, aiming a laser at the person on his back. 

Masaki looked up at the robot. “Well, that’s fun.” 

The robot made a big show of charging up its laser, and Masaki sprinted into the safe zone to get the person inside. The laser fired seconds after he entered, and it hit the barrier.

He wiped the sweat off his face in his short respite, and launched himself back into the fray, watching carefully as other people used their quirks to destroy robots and move forward, someone was punching very neat holes through the robot, someone appeared to be teleporting robots’ heads off, it was nuts. 

Masaki faced down the robot that was firing at him earlier, and eyed it. He already knew what he was going to do, but he needed to be sure that there was enough time for him to do it. 

_1._

_2._

_3_.

_Ok, let’s go!_

Masaki started tapping his eyeballs frantically, and activated his quirk, forming two iron and turquoise knives. Dissipating his wings, he whipped out the knives to begin stabbing and climbing up the giant robot. Reaching the top, having barely broken a sweat, he formed a much, much larger chunk of turquoise and started bashing the robots head like there was no tomorrow. Satisfied with his destruction, he dissipated his weapons, reformed his wings, and launched himself off the robot, going on to the next robot that he saw repeating the process on quite a few others.

_This is wayyy too easy. How’s this an exam? How many robots have I destroyed? How many people have I rescued? God, I hope I have enough points to pass…. Oh lol, she just fell off that robot!_

Masaki had no idea how many he had destroyed, but he figured his point level was getting higher. He had made a few of the robots shoot at each other, and the ones with a 3 on them were easy to trip up. He continued to rescue people both from robots, and from other applicants who were being so stupid with their quirks. 

He growled in frustration as he threw up a wall of earth to protect the person he’s rescuing.

_Like really guys, it’s not that hard to just aim!_

Cursing as his eyes twitched in pain from the dust around him, he reached the next zone, only to find that it’s just a mountain.

Round two, same procedure. 

Make knives. 

Climb Robot.

Bash the robot’s head in, dissipate his weapons, and glide down. 

Rinse, and repeat.

Masaki made it to the next zone in record time, having an easier time making it uphill then the other applicants due to having climbed one of the robots and soaring over the peaks instead of climbing over it like an average pleb.

He reveled in the feeling of the wind through his hair, and wondered what it would be like to really have wings. Wings made of flesh and blood that he could feel. 

_If only I were more like my parents._

In the midst of his enjoyment, he winced as he realized that he probably missed a bunch of people to rescue. 

The mountain came to an abrupt end, as it started steeply plunging downhill, showing a terrain made of different sized rocks. It looked like a landslide. The robots looked like they were having a hard time navigating through the terrain. 

_I’m going to have to be more careful._

Instead of rushing at the robots like he had earlier, now he went a bit slower, to make sure he wasn’t knocking anything down. 

He climbed up on more robot, and knocked it out with his usual technique, when he realized that it was collapsing. 

_Oh no. Oh no no no no._

Masaki watched in horror as he saw the thing tilt and crashdown, underneath him, and frantically leaped off, hopefully to avoid the giant landslide that he was sure was going to crash down and crush something.

He landed several meters away, and braced himself for the inevitable thud.

Only it didn’t come. All the rocks remained in their exact positions before the robot had fallen.

_Of course they wouldn’t make it so it could hurt anybody. I guess the rocks really are stable!_

Masaki had glided his way to the last zone, having rescued people and bashed robots along the way, when he came to what looked like a shore line. A big shoreline. There were floating robots with lasers floating around.

He could see the end in the distance, indicated by two bright yellow flags, and saw other competitors heading towards it already, making creative uses of their quirks to get across.

Masaki sighed and blinked his eyes blearily. There wasn’t any place high enough for him to glide off of, so he’s going to have to swim over to one of the robots and climb one of those.

_Damn, I’m so tired._

He sighed, and got into the water, shivering at its cold temperature and began swimming. He agonized at the sight of all the other applicants making much better time than him, and when he finally reached the robot, he didn’t even try to do anything cool. He swung up, bashed it with huge chunk of turquoise and called it a day.

He finally reached the top, and reformed his wings for the last time. He jumped and glided down from the robot, almost to the finish line when he saw someone struggling in the water.

It was a person covered with freckles and an awful tie dye job that he had seen earlier in the waiting room.

_Oh dear. I think he’s drowning. But how is he drowning? I mean, his head is above the water._

With a pang of shock, Masaki swooped a bit lower to see what was wrong, and misjudging his aim, nosedived into the water.

“SHI-!”

The other person, taking no notice of him, continued to struggle in the water.

“Hey-” Masaki coughed. “ I’m going to try and get you out, ok?”

The winged boy dissipated his wings, and grabbed onto the other person by the arm, and tried dragging them to the finish line, which was so, so close, but so far away from a kid who had been going full force with nothing but his brute strength.

_Why did I ever think I could rescue someone else in the water when I’m this exhausted? Also, why does the person feel like they got stabbed a bunch or something?_

Masaki reached down to his feet and created a large piece of plastic to float on the surface of the water with the freckles person. 

_Yeah, I’m not going to make it. This plastic is only going to last for a few more seconds, I hope someone’s going to come out here to come help us._

Masaki felt a weight on the piece of plastic that was keeping them afloat. He looked up to see a grey skinned girl, reaching down and touching the two people. The world spun, and then they landed, thankfully, at the finish line.

Masaki got up from his face plant, and looked at his savior. 

“Thank you for saving me!” said Masaki rubbing his neck sheepishly. “Sorry, about that, I didn’t mean to mess with your race.”

She glanced at him for a moment, muttered something, and walked off.

He watched her leave and shrugged. Let bygones be bygones, right?

Masaki went to crouch by the freckles person, who now that he realized, was covered with holes. 

_Yup, sure, why not._

The brown haired boy shook their shoulder.

“ Hey. Are you doing ok?”

They stirred, and sat up. 

“How the fuck did I get here? I mean I know I fell off a robot, but jeez. Did I suddenly gain the ability to teleport?”

“ Well, no, but that girl can teleport!” The holey kid with green eyes spun around to look at Masaki. “ She got us out!”

“Oh that’s good,” They sighed, and frowned. “What do you mean, we?”

Masaki grinned sheepishly and blinked hard to try and clear his vision. “Um, I tried to rescue you? And I started drowning myself?”

He snorted. “That’s one way to go.”

Masaki grinned. “Yup, it sure is. Isn’t it super cool that we made it! I hope we passed! And…”

The two walked off together towards the main building, and waited for the rest of the applicants.

“…. And that’s how my quirk works!”

The Principal butted in, and announced to the crowd of kids.

“Alright guys! See you next time! Your results will come in the mail in a few days! Good luck!”

With that, they were delivered back to the docks.

Masaki returned home to an empty house, and finished his chores for the day. He left a note for his parents telling about his day, and took off all his jewelry. 

As he fell asleep, there was only one thought in his mind. 

_And now we wait._


End file.
